MERCHANDISING MATTERS

Changing Up Your Window Displays

When we asked our reporting stores how often they change their window displays and whether they used any unique themes or had any great tips, the advice came flooding in!

“Our displays change all the time,” says a Mississippi retailer. “I work on them constantly.”

In Georgia a store owner shares, “We change them every month, highlighting different collections in our store.”

“I enjoy doing my windows,” says an Ohio retailer. “I love the change and my thinking is, ‘If you’re tired of seeing it, so is your customer.”

SEASONAL SCHEDULE

Many store owners stick to a seasonal schedule, including a South Carolina retailer who says, “I usually change mine with the holidays. Right now, I have Valentine’s Day and next will be Easter and then Mother’s Day, etc.”

PRODUCT BASED

Putting the focus on a particular type of product is a successful strategy deployed by many store owners including a Nevada retailer who changes her windows once a month to highlight a new collection.

A retailer with multiple locations in Michigan says, “I look at what I have a lot of and create a window around that. For example, right now we have a lot of squishy balls from Schylling, so there’s an entire window of them. It brings in the kids after school (and their parents)!”

In Kansas a store owner shares, “Since we moved our Blue Q sock display to the window, the sales increases have amazed me. We are snagging new 20-something customers from the trendy Japanese eatery three doors over!”

UNIQUE THEMES & APPROACHES

Another store owner from Michigan says, “I always use unique themes. Our next window will be a canned-food sculpture which will be donated to charity when we’re finished.”

An Oregon store owner says, “We use shutters, chairs, mannequins, tables, a roll-top desk and lamps in our windows - nothing too exciting as space is a tad tight.”

The aforementioned Ohio retailer says she limits her window displays to $50 per installation and makes most of her props.